Wings of a Butterfly
by ARandomFangirl
Summary: AU Roxas goes to an expensive allboys' high school. His new roommate is Axel, who is all he could ask for in a roommate. Axel shows Roxas a side of him that he or the fangirls didn't expect. AkuRoku. Don't like, don't read.
1. Chapter 1 A New Beginning

[AU Roxas goes to an expensive all-boys' high school. His new roommate is Axel, who is all he could ask for in a roommate. Axel shows Roxas a side of him that he (or the fangirls) didn't expect. AkuRoku. Don't like, don't read. WIP. Rated T for language and maybe some future kissing scenes. No smut/lemon. I would giggle MUCH too hard if I tried to write it.

**Disclaimer:** Don't own KH. But if I did...ponder

**Notes**: The AkuRoku will be only flash or light shonen-ai in early chapters. But, I promise it will get better. Trust me. I'm a fangirl. :P Also, this isn't a songfic. The title sounded good and it KINDA has to do with the fic in later chapters. Well..it will. I hope. Anyway! Enjoy

**Wings of a Butterfly**

**By: ARandomFangirl or RF**

**Chapter 1 – New Beginning**

I gaze up at the 3-story stone building in front of me, shielding my eyes from the scorching, August sun. Even wearing a black button-down shirt and faded jeans is too hot to wear in this heat.

I put my large trunk on the pavement and sit on it, trying to collect my thoughts and catch my breath. For someone who usually has such a choke hold on my life, Kairi, my mother --I only call her my mother if people ask how she's related to me and when I'm talking to her face to face. Otherwise, it's Kairi-- seemed quick to more or less threw me out of the car when she was dropping me off this morning. Which, by the way, was only slightly cooler than it is now.

My disorientation didn't get any better once I stepped inside the main hall of Cromwell Academy, a spacious corridor with arches and pillars with draping red and gold curtains adoring the wide white-frame windows. I don't remember the name of the black-haired guy who escorted me to what looked like a gift shop, tucked away into a corner of the hall. In a flurry of motion, a uniform was placed in my hands, my picture taken and an ID card given to me.

I spotted a group of guys all wearing basketball shorts and wife beaters. One held a worn basketball in his hands. When I tried asking them for directions, they talked down to me as if I didn't have half a brain cell. Rudeness aside, I still managed to find my dorm.

My breath caught, I shift my bag with my keyboard on it to my other shoulder and lug my trunk through the propped open door. A bored looking pale girl sits at a desk in front of me, absentmindedly flipping through some music magazine with a fishnet covered hand, her dyed black hair a curtain over her face. She looks up suddenly at me and asks, "Do you have ID?"

I think for a moment and realize what she's talking about. I fish through my deep jeans pockets, walk over to her, and hold it out. She peers at it and goes back to her magazine.

"Take the staircase to the right. Your room is the 5th on the left."

"Thanks." She scratches her nose in response.

I take her directions and gingerly walk up the winding, marble staircase, trunk in tow. It's oddly comfortable inside, for somehow the burgundy walls have a calming effect. Although there are no air conditioners in sight, the air is cool. Scanning the golden numbers on each of the doors, I finally see one that looks familiar. Stopping suddenly, I look at the card in my hand, at the number on the door, and back down again. Yep, they're the same. 302A. My hand is on the knob when I hear...Linkin Park? No way.

"I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real. I wanna let go of the pain I've felt so long," says the door.

Yep. Linkin Park. But how? There's no way that fate would have me roomed with a metal-head. I ruffle my hands through my sandy blond hair and tug at the hem of my shirt and open the door

Inside, the music is louder. I look to the source and am so shocked to see a vibrant red head laying on the azure couch to my right, that I drop my one suitcase loudly onto the navy blue carpet. He has a plaid fleece blanket over him --I guess it really must get cold I here after awhile-- and he's staring up at the ceiling, mouthing the words.

Hearing my suitcase fall, he looks upside down at me with his sparkling emerald eyes. "Hey! You my new roommate?"

"I guess so. This is 302A, right?"

He nods and stands up to his full height while shrugging the blanket off of him, which is about 6 inches taller than me. Baggy black pants with red stitching and many chains dangling off of them adorn his legs, and a plain, black hoodie over a My Chemical Romance tee completes the look. His eyes are lined in black and his red hair is spiked up in all directions.

He extends his hand. "Axel."

I shake it awkwardly, expecting my hand to break from his grip. "Roxas." Most guys these days just say, "Sup, Bro?" and do that half hug, half handshake thing. Very rarely do people shake hands anymore.

"Let me take your trunk," he says, picking it up easily before I can object. He turns and walks into a room in front of me and have no choice but to follow. It's always the nice ones that turn on you and dump your stuff out the window.

In front of me is a sliding glass door that leads to a balcony that shows the New England hillside, which is vibrant with the yet-unchanged leaves. I gaze to my left and see that Axel's side of the room is lived in, with his many interests displayed on the walls and the black linen sheets on his bed worn in the right places. He had obviously been here for quite awhile.

He places the bag at the foot of my bed. "Well, here we are. This is obviously our bedroom. The room we just came from is the living room and off of that is the kitchen...thing. Which no one's supposed to know about. Microwaves and such aren't allowed in the dorms. But how the hell else am I supposed to make bacon in the morning? The school's is awful."

"You cook?"

"I love to cook!" he says happily, with a hint of indignation. "I can cook everything, except cookies. I try to make them, but I always end up burning them."

I laugh and begin to unpack, putting my clothes into the drawers.

As I slip the bag carrying my keyboard from my shoulder, I notice Axel's eyes look curiously at the pack.

"It's a keyboard," I say simply, answering his unspoken question. I unzip the midnight black cover and show him the 88 ebony and ivory keys. Kairi had given it to me one Christmas. She must've had a boyfriend or something around then to be so generous.

"Do you play well?"

"You could say that..." I only practiced everyday for at least an hour playing works ranging from Bach to Ella Fitzgerald to Guns and Roses.

Glancing around the room, I noticed no other strange cases that instruments come in, nor the instruments themselves, so I had to ask, "Do you play something?"

"Does singing count?" he asks with a sly smile.

I didn't peg Axel as the singing type, but as soon as he said it, I realized how wrong my first judgment was. His smooth, relaxing voice seemed would translate well into singing. All I managed to say was "I suppose it does."

"You're already 10 times better than my last roommate," he says with a smirk, leaning against the wall.

I look up as I take out a pair of jeans and walk to my armoire, a bit startled by the random statement. "How's that?"

"Well, for one, you're a metal head!"

"How could you tell that?"

"When you walked in you started head banging." His tone is flat, but his eyes give away the joke hidden.

"I did...?" I didn't even notice. I had to hide my love of metal from Kairi to avoid her poison words. Apparently, I didn't hide it as well as I thought if someone who I just met could already tell it.

He nods, "And your sense of style is more like mine. Plus, I can tell you're not an asshole.My last roommate was a Born-Again-Christian and would constantly keep telling me what I should be doing as a 'faithful servant to God'." He made quotation marks in the air around the last words he said.

"Must be hard living with a devout Christian."

"Well, it's one thing if you're not Christian because all they'll do is try to get you to convert. But when you are Christian, they nitpick at you, telling you how you're not doing this or you should be doing this."

I try to hide my amazement, but it doesn't go over well. "You're Christian?"

"What? Don't tell me you've been brainwashed by society telling you that the only good people dress in bright colors." As he speaks in a somewhat sad tone, as proof of his faith, he pulls out a silver cross necklace with a stone in the center that I've never seen before.

I turn away, hiding the pink coming into my cheeks. One right after the other, he's shown me two things I never knew about before.

Almost like reading my thoughts he declares, "It's Morganite. It will change either pink or brown depending on how much sun it gets. And don't worry about the faith thing. I get it all the time."

This is the king of awkward silences, so I try to break it. "So, you like Linkin Park?"

He snorts, "That's like asking me if I breathe. Yes, I love Linkin Park. They put on a good show." By his joking manner, I can tell he's already put it behind him.

"You've been to one of their concerts?"

He nods excitedly, "Snagged some tickets over the summer. It was awesome!"

"Lucky! My mom HATES metal. She doesn't think it's 'satanic' or anything, but she doesn't want me to 'get into that scene.' Which sucks, because I really want to.'"

"What about your dad? What does he think of it?"

Taken aback, I try to find words. I don't even know if he's alive or not. Anything I know about him was information I gathered from the other mothers of the neighborhood since my mother is very secretive when it comes to my father. She keeps no pictures of him and whenever I asked how come I didn't have a daddy as a child, she would get angry and say, "Roxas, it doesn't even matter what happened to your dad, he's not here and that's all you need to know."

"All I know about him is that his name was Sora, he looked kind of like me in an older version and that he and my mom were friends as kids," I finally manage.

Axel's turn to feel uncomfortable, "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

I shrug as I say, "It's okay, it doesn't bother me. It's hard to miss something that you've never known."

I feel a presence next to me. Gazing up, my eyes are struck by the most beautiful shade of green. In my chest, my heart skips a beat and I forget to breathe.

I know he's not used to opening up, for his voice shakes slightly as he says, "I know what you mean. I never knew who my parents were and I never had much of a childhood. I was just dropped off at an adoption agency one day. All I know about my parents is that my mom loved Guns and Roses, which is why my name is Axel. I don't know anything about my dad. I don't even know if either of them are alive or not."

All of a sudden, I act on my random urge to pull Axel closer to me and rest his head in the crook of my neck, so my head can rest on his. The smell of bacon wafts into my nose, which I assume is from his hair. I need to ask him about that later. What does this guy use? Bacon shampoo? Or just slathers bacon all over himself?

His continued speech startles me and brings me back down to Earth from my thoughts. "I moved from foster to foster until Saix decided to take me in. He's a single guy, so he has a lot of women over, and since I didn't really want to burden his social life or hear the bed shaking, no one should ever have to hear their bosses bed shake." His breath ruffles my shirt with every word.

"He's your boss? Where do you work?"

"Quasimodo, that goth-ish store in town. I can get you a job there, if you want. The people are really nice, you can wear whatever you want and it pays pretty well."

"Sounds good!" Even if the people were assholes, the uniforms were dorky and the pay was crap, I would probably work there. I can't help but have a deep longing to be around Axel, even though I haven't been around him more than a few minutes.

He breaks from my embrace, all the pain wiped off of his face. A devious smile crosses his lips, "You know what we have to do to celebrate?"

I say what I have always wanted to, after being pent up inside Kairi's health food haven for so long."Get assloads of Monster and stuff our faces with SmartFood popcorn and Snickers?"

He looks at me with wide eyes and his mouth open agape. "I...love...you." I blush, but laugh to take attention away from my red face.

After rummaging through the closet on his side, he pulls out a shiny, black helmet that covers your entire head and throws it at me.

Blinking and trying to react quickly, I catch it. "What's this for?"

"You'll see..." he says, grinning from ear to ear and a fire burning in his eyes.

A/N: I swear this is like the 10th time I've edited this chapter. I just want it to be perfect and I'm not sure if I have it right. So, this may not be the last time. If anyone would like to Beta for me, that would be great! I need someone to help me get my ideas out. T.T

As for Cromwell Academy, I was trying to think of a name for a ritzy academy that doesn't have a religion attached to it. It was originally Merriweather Academy, but one day, I was in English and someone did a project with a poem by someone with the last name of Cromwell. I was just taken aback by the name. I liked the sound of it and the fact that it was from poet added to my love of it. So, if someone used the name in one of their stories or if it's an actual school, it was purely a coincidence.

And there really are high schools with dorms in them, by the way! There's a private school in my town that does. You all may have known that, but I know I wouldn't have known that if I didn't live in my town.


	2. Chapter 2 A New Set of Questions

Roxas goes to an expensive all-boys' high school. He meets his new roommate, Axel, who shows Roxas a side of him that no one (even the fangirls) expected. AkuRoku. AU

**Discla****imer:** Don't own KH. But if I did...ponder Serexion would totally use The Organization to take over the world. Each of them can have a country. Xemnas can have Mexico, Roxas could have Russia, Larxene could have Canada... 

**Notes** The AkuRoku will be only flash or light shonen-ai in early chapters. But, I promise it will get better. Trust me, I'm a fangirl. :P Also, this isn't a songfic. The title sounded good and it KINDA has to do with the fic in later chapters. Well, it will. I hope. Lastly, the main action of the story is written in present tense. If you see any past tense, it's because Roxas is thinking about or explaining something that happened in the past. Without further ado, please enjoy!

**Wings of a Butterfly**

**By: ARandomFangirl or RF**

**Chapter 2 – A New Set of Questions**

I wouldn't have believed it if I wasn't looking at it with my own eyes. Not only was Axel old enough to drive, but he drove a motorcycle. And a pretty bad-ass one at that. Lime green flames were contrasted against the midnight black metal fuel tank. Chrome along the rest of the bike made it shine so bright in the golden sun that I almost had to shield my eyes.

"I'm glad I got one with two seats on it." Axel's voice always seems to bring me out of my thoughts, a trait even my closest friends don't have.

"I don't mean to be nosy, but how the hell did you pay for this?!" I exclaim. Any teenager I knew had to scrape around any and save any and all money just to pay for a car. I'd imagine motorcycles wouldn't be much cheaper.

"I managed to find this one for $2000 and hardly any miles on it. I made most of the money working full-time at Quasimodo over the summer and the rest was me working before that. I got this only two weeks ago. The seat isn't even worn down to the point where it's comfortable yet."

"Wow..." is all I'm able to say while my eyes drift down at the steaming, cracked tar of the parking lot below me. It's one thing if someone gets something expensive as a gift or if they already had the money to buy it. But, when someone has to save up to buy something, it's almost like you can see all the blood, sweat and tears that they put in to saving up for it when you look at it.

It almost makes me feel spoiled. I mean, Kairi didn't exactly roll out the red carpet for me on my birthday or on Christmas when it came to gifts. I remember some years feeling like a father on Father's day, getting gifts like belts or a new watch and not things that I truly wanted. But she did buy me a lot of the necessities, like school supplies, lunch money, food and clothes. She even was sending me to this private school, which I hear costs as much a college tuition and putting me in a dorm on top of that. And I didn't have to pay for any of it. If Axel didn't make me positive that I wanted to work at Quasimodo, then wanting to contribute to my own costs certainly did.

Noticing my change in demeanor, Axel's tone takes a on a certain softness. "Hey, now, don't be like that. You'll be making money soon enough." How does he read my mind like that? Am I that much of an open book?

"Now come on!" He threw a leg over one side of motorcycle, like a jockey getting on his horse, and sat down. He slips off his hoodie and places it in one of the studded black bags on either side of the motorcycle that I hadn't noticed before. I guess I was too distracted by the shiny chrome.

Instead of following him, I shifted my weight from foot to foot in nervousness. "How long have you been riding?"

"Well, Saix started showing me how to ride in the elementary school parking lot last year. He taught me how to drive in all kinds of weather -- blizzards, downpours, you name it."

Apparently he could see the apprehension crawling across my face, for he continued. "Now, don't worry. Instead of going through a Driver's Ed where cars are the focus, I went through a motorcycle version of the course. I took a driving test and have my license and everything. I'll show it to you if you don't believe me." He started reaching to his back pocket, where I'd assume he keeps his wallet.

"No, it's fine. I believe you." I try to sound confidant when I spoke those words, but I didn't even believe it. Still, I hop on the back with him. "Just out of curiosity, may I ask why you decided to drive a motorcycle instead of a car?"

"I know it sounds strange, but even when I was little, I wanted to be a biker. Seeing someone on a motorcycle would without fail bring a smile to my face."

It certainly didn't surprise me that Axel wanted to be a biker since he was small. He could wear a gorilla suit and still the strong biker presence would radiate from him. It makes me trust him more because if he wasn't lying about that, he probably wasn't lying about taking the test.

I stick my head into the dark, padded helmet, already feel sweat dripping on my head.

"I swear, I feel ten degrees hotter," I groan.

"I know it sucks, but in the event the worst happens, your head isn't as tough as the road, if you catch my drift. Try lifting the shade on the helmet." He had already done that on his, yet I hadn't even seen him put it on.

I lift what I'd imagine to be the shade, since it's a piece of plastic tinted like sunglasses in front of my eyes. It did help a bit.

"I'm so stupid when it comes to motorcycles. Where do I hold on?"

"You'll fall off if you hold on to anything but me. Hey, don't look at me like that! I mean, you're cute, but I wouldn't use that cheesy of a way to get you to feel me up."

Oh. So, it wasn't just in those sappy chick flicks Kairi can't seem to get enough of, where the guy parades through some "romantic" city, like Paris or Rome, while the girl holds on tightly while looking at all the pretty scenery. It makes me want to puke just thinking about it.

I somehow managed to find a balance where I could hold on to Axel tight enough where I didn't feel like I was about to fall over, but not so tight that it looks like we're dating.

Wait a minute. Axel called me cute? What was I supposed to say to that?! "You're cute too," or "No I'm not"? Great. Now I feel like a preteen girl.

He looks over his shoulder and carefully backs out of the parking space, avoiding the shiny red convertible on one side and the black Mustang on the other. He drives at a moderate pace through the parking lot and it isn't until he gets to the main road that I realize that it "moderate" is not in Axel's vocabulary.

He pulls out of the parking lot at break-neck speed, instantly forcing me to cling to him like a lost puppy. There goes my dignity.

I can't help but notice how skinny Axel is. I can feel the boniness of his ribs through his shirt on my arms. My fingers can't simply lock in front of him and keep me on, so I have to cross my arms and grab my elbows in order to not feel like I'm about to get lost to the breeze. But, surely the guy eats. He says he like bacon a lot, plus he seemed to genuinely want to have some junk food. I guess he's just one of the lucky people who can eat absolute crap and somehow lose weight in the process.

I find myself looking out at the world passing me by, how all the colors swirl together so you can't distinguish one thing from the next.

All of a sudden, it hits me. Staring at the scenery while holding onto a guy. I'm just like one of those girls from a chick flick! I don't know what's worse, feeling like a preteen or feeling like a girl from a chick flick.

I debate this in my head while I constantly change my grip on Axel throughout the ride. I would start to get used to his crazy driving and ease up a bit, but then he would careen around a corner or pull out of a stop sign like a bat out of hell, sending me back into lost puppy mode.

Through one miracle or another, we somehow manage to get to the center of town without somehow crashing, exploding or any other undesirable action happening.

He surprisingly comes into the parallel parking spot slowly and carefully. As he flicks off the engine, he takes his helmet off, places it between his skinny legs and ruffles his hand through his crimson hair. When I take my helmet off as well, I don't want to copy Axel with the Fabio hair or anything, but a glance into the side view mirrors changes my mind. My hair is plastered to my head with a mixture of hair gel and sweat and it makes me look like a mushroom.

I rake my fingers through my hair in an attempt try to make my hair look somewhat how it did when I left my house.

Axel gets off his bike opposite to the way he got on and goes to the back of it to put down the kickstand over the back wheel. Which strikes me as funny, since such a awesome bike has a kickstand to keep it up.

When he's finished, he turns to face me and can see before I do that I need help getting down.

"Need help?"

I look around to see the situation I'm in. I look at my left foot, clad in the skater shoes I convinced Kairi were for comfort. It's not too far off the ground, so I could manage that bit. On the other hand, this motorcycle was intended for people with long legs. That, and the fact that accidents tend to occur when I'm in the area makes me say, "Yes."

"Okay, slide your left foot to the ground." His tone reminded me of a driving instructor, so I couldn't help but obey.

He strides around to the other side of the bike and in one swift motion, grabs and lifts my leg. He has a strong grip, the kind that feels like they never let go. It's comforting in a way, but thinking causes another blush to creep across my face. All I could do was hope that he thought it was from the heat.

He gingerly walks back around the bike, my leg still in hand, putting me off balance and causing me to hop on my left leg every few seconds. Finally, I have both feet planted on the ground safely and I have no broken bones, bruises or any other injuries.

We set off into town, which was lively with people getting errands done or meeting friends. We crossed through the park-like strip of land that gave the center of town its name, the Green. As we walked I looked at the monuments that were placed along the Green which I had known all my life. A green tank with a white star stoically sat while children played on it. I never realized how hippie-like that was, like putting a flower down the barrel of a gun.

We crossed the street and headed down Cinema Street, which was the home of Cinema Street Theater, a small place, but it was a good place if you didn't want to have to drive to the big multiplex the next town over.

There was a crosswalk in front of the Broadway-themed cinema, with an awning lined in lights and the movies shown on a marquee in black lettering. Across the way was Quasimodo, it's name in black and red, a big picture window in the front with two mannequins, one of a small boy and one of a teenage girl, both screaming while wearing the store's merchandise.

"I thought we were gonna get food," I try not sound whiny.

"Mind as well get you a job application while we're out," he flashes me a smart-ass smile.

We step inside, a blast of cool air meeting us as we walked in.

A blond haired guy whose hair was very 80's inspired -being shaved on the sides and spiked on the top- had his combat boot-clad feet on the clear glass display case of all the piercings and rings. His arms were crossed over his chest and his long, ring-adorned fingers tapped along to the rock music playing in the background. He was oblivious to our presence; his blue-green eyes are glazed over, looking but not truly seeing the people passing by.

Like a cat, Axel bounded over the display case and bends down so his mouth is at the same height as the blond's ear. I now know what the bomb on Hiroshima must've sounded like, for Axel's loudness matched that as he screamed "Demyx! Can I have a job application!?"

Mr. 80s scrambles around, trying to orient himself again. "Axel? What are you doing here? I thought you had the day off today!"

"Demyx, meet Roxas. Roxas, Demyx." Demyx waves and I wave back awkwardly. Axel continues, "Roxas is my new roommate and he kicks ass. He's looking for a job here."

The blond's brow furrows, and he looks as though he's about to say something, but something in Axel's face makes him stop . I look up to see what it was, but he just smiles at me. I must've missed it.

Demyx returns to his blissfully happy demeanor and says, "Well, you'll still have to talk to Saix about it. You know how wary he gets with new employees."

Axel nods. "Is he here?"

Demyx looks solemn. "He took the day off. He said he's sick." When Axel's face began to show signs of worry, he said, "Don't worry about him, it's just a cold."

"I'll call him later, then. Can I have a job application anyway? It'll save time, because I'm sure he'll say yes."

Demyx rifles through a bunch of keys on a keychain attached to the belt loop of his skinny jeans. He finds a simple key and unlocked a draw below the cash register, which contains a few job applications. He takes one out and slides it across the counter towards me; I grabbed it before it fell on the hardwood floor.

Axel bounds back over the display case and stands next to me. "Well, we really should be on our way. We're off to stuff our faces."

Demyx waves us goodbye as we breeze out the door. We take a right once we get out of the door and continue on down the cobblestone sidewalk cracked with age, the heat of the summer sun hitting us once again. At least we cooled down a bit.

"Now where to?" I ask; there are many stores on this one-way downhill street.

The Smoking Gun. Know the place?"

"Yeah, I know the place." It's a convenience store run by an Indian family. Another thing shunned by Kairi.

We jay-walk across the street and step inside to the smoky store, where the smell of rosemary and vanilla greets us. As I walked to the counter, filled with displays of dandy, cigars and lighters, leaving only a small place to put your things that you would like to buy, I noticed a display of incense. That must be the source of the rosemary and vanilla. The skin of the woman behind the counter is weather-beaten and tanned, but it makes her look wise. Her ebony hair is pulled back off her face into a bun, making her kind brown eyes, lined in black, stand out.

She says "Hello, Axel" in a thick Hindu accent, a smile brightening her face.

"Hello Bela! How goes it?"

"Oh, busy as always, but I wouldn't have it any other way." She lets out a laugh that sounds almost like someone crying. She peers at me and says to Axel in mock-disgust "That's very rude of you to not introduce me to your friend."

Although it was in a joking manner, Axel looked genuinely sorry. "I'm sorry. Bela, this is my friend, Roxas. Roxas, this is Bela. She's helped me out a lot."

"It was no trouble at all, really. Now what can I do for you today, Axel?"

"Roxas and I are going to get some junk food." With that, he turned on his heel and heads back down the center aisle.

I didn't have a chance to ask what Bela did to help Axel, but I figured it'd be one of the things I'd ask him later.

One side of the center aisle is lined with magazines of all different sorts. In a quick glance, I can see things ranging from preteen ones advertising the newest young stars to a whole magazines about guitars or fishing. Most of these I've never heard of.

The other side of the aisle is filled with candies as varied from the magazines.

"Wow...I don't even know where to start," is all I can muster. Being around so much junk food is really a shock to my system.

He steps behind me and rests his head on my shoulder, apparently trying to see what I'm seeing. His mouth is next to my ear as he says, "Well, let's start off with what we said we'd get." Although what he said wasn't at all poetic and he wasn't whispering, feeling his warm breath against my ear since shivers down my spine.

"I'll get the SmartFood and Monster," he calls over his shoulder as he strides over to the next aisle, leaving me like a deer in the headlights in front of so many choices. I can't seem to find the damn Snickers anywhere, even after scanning everything like a word search.

In a flash, Axel is back with the food and drinks, which he places at his feet on the worn gray carpet.

"Need some help?" He seems to contain a small laugh.

Just as he said it, the Snickers appeared before my eyes, and I reached out my hand to grab it. "Nope, I got it," I reply indignantly. But, it was too late, for Axel had reached his hand out at the same time. It may be cliché, but it still embarrassed me immensely. But, I made it less awkward by simply grabbing a different bar than he did.

"Dude, Mentos!" Axel exclaimed all of a sudden. "What about them?" I inquire with confusion.

"If you put them in Coke, the drink not the drug, they shoot out! It's awesome!"

My eyes widen. "How could I never have heard of this?!"

Without another word, we scramble to get a bottle of Coke and Axel gets a bunch of Mentos and head to the checkout, excited for our purchases. Bela rolled up her sleeves on her gray sweatshirt, which looked at least five sizes too big for her delicate frame, and rung us up. Axel pulled out his black leather wallet and payed. It was attached to his wallet by a chain I hadn't noticed amongst all the others.

As Axel puts away his wallet, I happen to see scars on his arms. None of them look relatively new. In fact, they look like they've been there for a decent amount of time, for they're nearly faded to white lines.

Maybe that's what Bela helped him out with. It may be too personal to ask on the first day, but there was no harm in asking. He did tell me about his childhood, so maybe he's not afraid to open up to me.

We wave her goodbye and set off back for the dorm, our arms full of junk, so many questions rearing through my head.

A/N: As always, this story wouldn't be nearly as good as it is now without the help of my lovely Beta, Serexion. She kicks so much ass. I'm not that happy with how this chapter turned out, but I think it's decent. The next one should hopefully be better. And keep in mind, this **will **have a supernatural-ness about it soon!

As a rule of thumb, if it's something that didn't appear in Kingdom Hearts, it's probably the result of my research or an actual experience of mine. For example, Quasimodo really is a place in my town and they actually do sell goth-ish clothing. (Though, it is a tad expensive. . )

You guys have been truly amazing with your reviews! You have no idea how much they mean to me and how much they make me want to make more chapters. I want to print them out and make them into a review sweater or something. Don't be shy with reviewing! I want to know what you thought of it, even if it's a quick, "Amazing job!" or "This could be better."


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